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Friday, April 28, 2017

Peripatetic Philosopher has a conversation:



The Peripatetic Philosopher has a conversation with a reader!

James R. Fisher, Jr., Ph.D.

© April 28, 2017




Book Reader (BR): “I understand you’ve written a motivational book.  I’m into motivational books, tapes, and have attended a batch of motivational seminars.  I look forward to reading your book.”

Peripatetic Philosopher (PP): “It’s not a motivational book.”

BR: “It’s not, then, what is it?”

PP: “It’s a book about putting you in the center of your life.”

BR: “I don’t follow.  That tells me nothing.  How do you expect to get readers to buy your book if that is all it is about?”

PP: “You find that not important?”

BR: “Of course, I’m in the center of my life, but I’m not narcissistic.  Is your book about making me narcissistic?”

PP: “Explain to me what you mean by ‘narcissistic.’

BR: “Self-centered, only thinking about myself and nobody else.  Is that what the book is about?”

PP: “No.”

BR: “Then what?”

PP: “The book is about thinking with your whole body, not just your mind; and not just about your conscious mind, but your subconscious mind as well.”

BR: “Well, that’s what motivational speakers talk about.  How is this book different?”

PP: “Thinking with your whole body is not a quid pro quo mechanism.  It is not about winning friends and influencing people; it is about putting yourself into the center of the frame; not as a getter but as a giver; and not as a giver so that people think well of you, praise you, and make you feel esteemed.  It is being a giver because your heart as well as your head tells you it is the right thing to do, not because you’re being generous, but because you are self-aware and self-accepting in that awareness so that your generously emanates from you naturally, but not mechanistically.”

BR: “I’m not sure I follow.”

PP: “What part do you have trouble with?”

BR: “All of it.”

PP: “Explain to me why you have such trouble.”

BR: “I don’t know where to start.”

PP: “Start anywhere.”

BR: “I don’t know where to start, okay, leave it at that.”

PP: “All right, then, tell me why you read motivational books, and what you get out of them.”

BR: “They make me feel better about myself.”

PP: “How?”

BR: “How?  I don’t know; in every way I guess.”

PP: “Explain every way.”

BR: “Well, I just feel better about myself after I read one of these books, listen to a tape, or attend a seminar; I guess more engaged.”

PP: “In what way, more engaged?”

BR: “Oh, I don’t know, just better; motivated to do something; be somebody, I guess.”

PP: “How long does it last; that feeling?”

BR: “How long does it last?  Emm, I never thought of that.  For a while.”

PP: “An hour?  A day?  A month?”

BR: “Oh, I see what you mean.  Until I get down on myself again, or run into someone or some situation that throws me off my stride, something like that.”

PP: “How often does that happen?”

BR: “How often?  About the same as everyone else, I guess, more than I would like; I think it happens to everyone, right?”

PP: “No, I don’t think so.  You see, motivational books and speakers, indeed, most promulgators of what is good for you are mainly attempting to motivate themselves.  You need a book; they need an audience.  They touch cords of your experience, and only cords because they are similar cords to their own, only magnified because they need an audience of adulators.”

BR: “But they are experts; they’ve gone to school to know what’s good for me.  Are you saying they’re frauds?”

PP: “No, I’m saying they are in the self-convincing business, and they have been with us since man became aware that he was a conscious thinking animal.  They have assumed the role that we refuse to accept for ourselves, a role we don’t feel qualified to manage.”

BR: “Then what are you saying?  Are you saying I am more qualified to say these things then they are?”

PP: “No, I’m saying your experience is your guide to what is right for you and what is not; that your life as it unfolds teaches you about yourself and what has worked for you and what has not; what you are good at, your strengths; and where you need help, your weaknesses.”

BR: “Well, I’m weak in thinking well of myself, okay!  And they make me feel good about myself by telling me things I don’t know.  You have a problem with that?”

PP: “No.”

BR: “Then what is your beef?”

PP: “I have none.”

BR: “Now, you have me confused.  To be polite, I would like to ask you what you mean.”

PP: “Your problems are not my problems; and your problems are not that of your motivator if that motivator happens to be someone other than yourself.  Only you know what is your experience, what is your history, what you value and believe, what interests you, and what you cherish and live for realizing.  

I cannot know that.  Nor can a motivator other than yourself know that.  Only you can know that and you can only know that if you know and understand yourself.  

To know and understand yourself you need to accept yourself as you are, right now; not as you would like to be or wish that you were, but as you are, right now.  To accept yourself as you are, you must be aware of yourself, warts and all, and not be hard on yourself for not being perfect or not being what everyone else expects you to be, but as you are.  You need a friend.

BR: “I have a lot of friends, people like myself who have a lot of the same problems, okay?”

PP: “Those are not  your friends; those are acquaintances.  You cannot have any friends if you are not your own best friend; and you cannot be your own best friend if you are not fully accepting of yourself as you are.

BR: “I have a problem with that; I’m working on it.”

PP: “By seeking answers outside yourself?  By reading motivational books?”

BR: “If you like, yes?”

PP: “How is it working?”

BR: “According to you, not very well.”

PP: “No, no, not according to me.  I am not in the equation.  I cannot own your problems because I am outside you and I cannot solve your problems in any case.  I can only solve problems relating to myself.  I can listen to you and in listening you can hear back to yourself what those problems are, and then decide to accept them or work on them, or deny they even exist.  That is up to you, not up to me, or anyone else."  

BR: “Then, your book is not about answers?  So, what is the point of writing it or for anyone to read it?”

PP: “That is the wrong question.  The right question is how do I find solutions to my own problems, and the only way is by creating the solutions out of the problems themselves, which are privy to you, alone.  That is a process of self-discovery.”

BR: “Self-discovery?  What is that?”

PP: “It is the confidence to listen to your own subconscious which is a conduit from your intuitive mind that tells you what is good for you and what is not; what commitments and involvements will benefit you and which ones will not.  The cognitive mind, the mind we all depend on; the mind that the motivational writers and speakers appeal to can often be misleading.”

BR: “Misleading?  In what way?”

PP: “To put it simply here for this conversation, our cultural programming dictates what we do mainly without thinking, and it is predicated on the cognitive mind, on what our culture tells us is sensible, desirable, important and necessary.  Culture is always out of tune with the times because it has an investment in the past and a reluctance to adapt to the present.  In this book, I call that a ‘hole in the soul,’ and then illustrate how that is so.”

BR: “That’s not fair!  Give me a clue.  How does it show this?”

PP: “My book attempts to show how materialism at the expense of spiritual health; sexual exhibitionism and gratuitous coupling without love; and how being married to a career for the money and not for the pleasure of work can lead to unhappiness.”

BR: “I’ve never found any kind of happiness in work.  It is the reason I’ve taken a number of on-line tests to see who I am and what I am best suited for.  I suppose you’re going to tell me that this has been a waste of time.”

PP: “No.”

BR: “No, but.  I’m sure there is a ‘but’ in there somewhere.”

PP: “What have you gained or learned from these tests?”

BR: “The kind of person I should be and the kind of work I should be pursuing.”

PP: “Any surprises?”

BR: “No, not really.  They've come out surprisingly close to what I've suspected.  Isn’t that funny?”

PP: “Why would I think that funny?”

BR: “Well, I expect you were going to tell me they are a waste of time, and see, they are not?”

PP: “Have they changed you; changed your work; changed your life in any appreciable way?”

BR: “No, but they could one day.”

PP: “What do you mean by, ‘one day’?”

BR: “In due time, once I get my act together.”

PP: “But that is not your problem.”

BR: “No, then what is?”

PP: “You’re still looking for answers outside yourself, and they are not ‘out there,’ but inside yourself; in what you’re doing, right now.  Change doesn’t occur in chronological time.  It never has; it never does.  Change occurs only in psychological time, which is right now.”

BR: “The book is about that?  About all this?”

PP: “Yes.”

BR: “What is the title of the book again?”

PP: “Confidence in Subtext.”

BR: “I might think about getting a copy of it.”

PP: “That would be nice.”


Wednesday, April 26, 2017

The Peripatetic Philosopher announces:




CONFIDENCE IN SUBTEXT

DR. JAMES R. FISHER, JR.'S 20TH BOOK! 


FOR YOUR INFORMATION

Some readers have wondered where I have been. No, I've not been sick; no, I've not been traveling. I have been writing this book, which is something of a revelation to me in that I've come to better understand my life and career in the writing, and why I have so often counter intuitively landed on my feet after making unconventional decisions.

It occurred to me that what at first blush appeared as outrageous decisions -- such as writing WORK WITHOUT MANAGERS -- grew out of a natural inclination to think with my whole body, not just my conscious mind.

Moreover, it occurred to me that we all have this capacity, but that we are programmed to disabuse it. The book is about many people, people who have used "Confidence in Subtext," but perhaps without knowing they have.

Everyone has this capacity, but alas, not everyone listens to what his or her unconscious mind is telling them. I''ve listened, as have several others, many profiled in this book, with remarkable results.

In any case, it has been a joy to write and I enjoyed every minute of the process, which incidentally, went into the tens of thousands of minutes.

I don't anticipate the book being a "bestseller," given the price, which I can explain.

The price of $46.80 is the lowest price Kindle allows for this somewhat massive book. My investment is only in the research, writing, editing and internal architecture of the book. Kindle's investment is in the printing, binding, packaging, producing and distributing, all very expensive activities.

For writers such as yours truly, coming in the evening of my life, Kindle has been a God send. My aim is to seed the garden; cultivation and growing can go on after I'm gone.

This is my 20th book and 18th in the genre of organizational development psychology. It is my most creative effort, and for those who happen to read it, I'm sure they will find ideas that depart from conventional psychology as it also embraces such themes as body, mind and spirit, and the subconscious as well as the conscious mind. That said it is not written in the jargon of science and technology but in the vernacular of regular readers of thoughtful books.

JRF




Kindle paperback book -- $46.80; Kindle e-book -- $9.99
389 pages, color photographs/schematics 

DESCRIPTION

“Confidence in Subtext” is evident when people know when to go for broke and when not to; when to develop a relationship and when not to; when to take a promotion and when not to; when to join a company or community or organization and when it would be wise to take a pass; when to invest and when not to; when to buy a home, an automobile or some other major purchase and when not to; when to take the advice of others and when not to; when to go it alone and when not to; when to leave a profession, a job, a community, a relationship, a church, school or company and when not to.

“Confidence in Subtext” is what happens when two people fall in love at first sight! A data bank of complex and detailed information floods the mind, information with which neither party is aware, and is processed in an instant.

To understand the idea of “Confidence in Subtext,” a few examples might be helpful. Everyone has a subtext. True confidence is not possible without a healthy subtext as the stories in this volume are designed to show. Subtext is buried in our subconscious beyond our day-to-day dealing in content and context and why it may not be familiar, but it is always there.

Mark Twain, as brilliant a writer that he was, demonstrated a damaged subtext. He was a profligate investor, and often in hair brained schemes that left him nearly bankrupt. He had a chance to invest in Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone, and took a pass on it. Other notables, however, have demonstrated “Confidence in Subtext.”

George Washington was offered to be the new monarch of the United States in 1783. When he refused, he was offered to be president for life, which he also refused. He served two four-year terms and then retired to his home in Mount Vernon.

A boy of nine during WWII was taken to a clothing store by his father to buy school clothes for the new school term. His father told the clerk, an old school chum, to charge the purchases. The clerk checked his credit and returned to say only cash would do. His father embarrassed, and crushed by the affront before his son, lost his composure, but not his son. “I don’t want any of this stuff anyway,” he told the clerk, took his father’s hand and walked him out of the store confident in his subtext which he obviously had no sense existed.

The Theosophical Society attempted to seduce the young Krishnamurti into being the messiah of a new religion and worshiped as a god. He utterly rejected the idea. He, a poor boy from India essentially uneducated, had confidence in subtext to escape this imprisoning tribute.

We all make life changing decisions. Our subtext, although involved, is unlikely acknowledged. We cannot change institutions, their policies or politics as our impact is severely limited. But we have unlimited ability to change ourselves and our situation if we but have confidence in a cultivated subtext. The stories here are of people like ourselves who have discovered that confidence in subtext, attributes which are active in us all.